Creation of the World

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In the beginning there was only chaos. Then out of the void appeared
Erebus, the unknowable place where death
dwells, and Night (Nyx). All else was empty,
silent, endless, darkness. Then somehow Love (Eros
) was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once
there was Light and Day, Gaea, the earth
appeared.

Then Erebus slept with Night, who gave birth to Aether, the heavenly light, and
to Day the earthly light. Then Night alone produced Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep,
Dreams, Nemesis, and others that come to
man out of darkness.

Meanwhile Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus,
the heavens. Uranus became Gaea's mate covering her on all sides. Together
they produced the three Cyclopes, the
three Hecatoncheires, and twelve
Titans.

However, Uranus was a bad father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He
imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's
womb. This angered Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. She made a flint
sickle and tried to get her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid
except, the youngest Titan, Cronus.

Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night. Cronus
grabbed his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing the
severed genitals into the ocean. The fate of Uranus is not clear. He either
died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled himself to Italy. As he departed he
promised that Cronus and the Titans would be punished. From his spilt blood
came the Giants, the
Ash Tree Nymphs, and the
Erinyes. From the sea foam where his
genitals fell came
Aphrodite.

Cronus became the next ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the
Hecatoncheires in Tartarus. He married
his sister Rhea, under his rule the Titans had
many offspring. He ruled for many ages. However, Gaea and Uranus both had
prophesied that he would be overthrown by a son. To avoid this Cronus swallowed
each of his children as they were born. Rhea was angry at the treatment of the
children and plotted against Cronus. When it came time to give birth to her
sixth child, Rhea hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs.
To conceal her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as
the baby to Cronus, who swallowed it.

This child was Zeus. He grew into a
handsome youth on Crete. He consulted Metis on
how to defeat Cronus. She prepared a drink for Cronus design to make him vomit
up the other children. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and Zeus was
allowed to return to
Mount Olympus as Cronus's cupbearer. This
gave Zeus the opportunity to slip Cronus the specially prepared drink. This
worked as planned and the other five children were vomited up. Being gods they
were unharmed. They were thankful to Zeus and made him their leader.

Cronus was yet to be defeated. He and the Titans, except
Prometheus,
Epimetheus, and
Oceanus, fought to retain their power.
Atlas became their leader in battle and it
looked for some time as though they would win and put the young gods down.
However, Zeus was cunning. He went down to Tartarus and freed the Cyclopes and
the Hecatoncheires. Prometheus joined Zeus as well. He returned to battle with
his new allies. The Cyclopes provided Zeus with lighting bolts for weapons. The
Hecatoncheires he set in ambush armed with boulders. With the time right, Zeus
retreated drawing the Titans into the Hecatoncheires's ambush. The
Hecatoncheires rained down hundreds of boulders with such a fury the Titans
thought the mountains were falling on them. They broke and ran giving Zeus
victory.

Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. Except for
Atlas, who was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world on
his shoulders.

However, even after this victory Zeus was not safe. Gaea angry that her
children had been imprisoned gave birth to a last offspring,
Typhoeus. Typhoeus was so fearsome that
most of the gods fled. However, Zeus faced the monster and flinging his
lighting bolts was able to kill it. Typhoeus was buried under Mount Etna in
Sicily.

Much later a final challenge to Zeus rule was made by the
Giants. They went so far as to attempt to
invade Mount Olympus, piling mountain upon mountain in an effort to reach the
top. But, the gods had grown strong and with the help of
Heracles the Giants were subdued or killed.